Breaking! SSASCGOC, SSASCFA begin merger talks to tackle industry challenges .
Breaking! SSASCGOC, SSASCFA begin merger talks to tackle industry challenges .
Segun Oladipupo
Negotiation have begun as Senior Staff Association of Shipping , Clearing and Forwarding Agency and Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporation and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) on Wednesday, agreed on a possible coexistence between the two maritime unions.
The two unions agreed on the initiative when SSASCFA visited the leadership of SSASCGOC at the secretariat in Lagos
In his opening speech, the President General of SSASCFA, Comrade Ugochukwu Harrison Asonye noted that many things have changed in the industry which necessitated a change in the industry’s unionism to be able to match the emerging trends.
While appreciating the union for its relentless efforts over the years, Comrade Asonye maintained that the two unions, if merged would achieve better feats than presently obtains in the industry.
His words, “As events unfold, there is need to make some changes. Many shipping companies used to have their warehouses and terminals but today, after concession, we now have terminal operators.
“We need to work together as private and government agencies and that if there is any issues, we can fight it together.
“We have made frantic efforts to change the name because we don’t have any business with clearing and forwarding. Today, we have union of shipping and SSASCGOC
Responding, the President, Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) Maritime Branch,Comrade Akin Bodunde who expressed delight about the request, quipped that Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has a formidable voice in the industry four unions merged together as one
Comrade Bodunde who stated that the collaboration was long overdue, added that it was good for the duo to work together because they belonged to the same industry saying it s a good initiative.
“Maritime is a big organisation and if we make a noise, there is no way people will not listen. We that manage the unions, we need to be together and if we make a noise, it peope.will.listen.
“The space is big enough to accommodate everybody if we are not selfish.
“MWUN has four branches and they are powerful because of their numerical strength, we can have the same thing here and not for us but for the people we are leading.
The union leader also stated that the unions should endeavour to engage in the marriage because of the myriads of challenges in the industry which require a formidable force to tackle.
“Today is a starting point and let us see how we can go, it is very important because we have a lot of challenges. This is not what they told us in 2006 before the concession when. We lost about 7,000 members.
“When we have our group at the top together, we can do it and whenever anyone of us needs the other, we will be there for each other. We will visit you in January, to further this position
“Today is a historic day in this union because this is the first time we are doing this and we are committing ourselves to the struggle. Among us too, we will continue to discuss it. This relationship will take us higher.”
